20 Answers

Consider this: All opinions are biased. There is no unbiased opinion. Why must this be?

Many people think of unbiased people in a white laboratory coat, objectively searching for the truth. However, scientists come in two basic forms , male and female, and they are just like you and me. They have beliefs and biases. A bias determines what you do with the evidence, especially the way in which you decide that certain evidence is more relevant or important than other evidence. Scientists are not objective truth seekers; they are not neutral.

Many people misunderstand bias, thinking that some individuals are biased and some are not.

Could this be him?

Tell you what, I'm smack dab in the middle of em here in the Silly-Con Valley. I deal with them on a daily. I can tell you this, they are very-very smart people, however the smarter they are in their field of study the less they are in contact with society in general. I have heard some really stupid noises come from the mouths of scientist. They have a certain pride about them, never mistake a Scientist with an Engineer, those are fighting words. Or Visa-Versa.

All in all, they are just people doing super people things. You can do something they cant do, but they would never let you know that. Would it be cook, build, make music, art, whatever. Their minds are very focused and this is what makes them scientists. Not much fun at a social gathering. Too analytical.

One of the points I was planning on getting to is that we all have biased opinions. Many times when we view a scientist we think of an open minded lab type scientist, but that's really far from the truth of what most scientists really are. They basically come in two different varieties, male and female, and they are people just like you and me.

Their background studies, belief systems, life experiences, and work experience play an extremely strong role in what they do with the evidence they find. If your belief system is in theology, that's where you will put the evidence that you find, your background determines the way you view the evidence and the conclusions you you arrive at.

If your background belief is in evolution, the evidence you find will be categorized and listed to support your background belief system as well. The part of the problem is there is no unbiased opinions what ever side you are on.

An Atheist scientists look at fossils and the world around them, it doesn't matter what evidence he or she may find. To an atheist god doesn't exist, they rely on their belief of evolution. The fossils to them can have nothing to with biblical events. Biased in their background and belief system, Noah's ark could be right in front of them and it would just be an ancient ship.

A Christian Scientist believes that the Bible is the word of God. They, just like any other group, draw on their belief system. God created the Universe and all life, therefore their view is also bias towards their belief system. To them the ancient ship is Noah's ark.

<a href="/users/3289/matheneyg/">@matheneyg</a>, true, very common picture of a scientist, I like the picture of him, Einstein, sticking out his tongue making a funny face!

EINSTEIN COMS TO MIND

There are good scientists and bad scientists. Just as there is good science and bad science. The good scientist doesn't know what the outcome will be and does tests and models to find a repeatable outcome and follows the evidence where it leads, no matter what. The bad scientist "knows" the outcome, and will do anything to produce the outcome despite where the evidence leads. Unfortunately, the latter is how most science is conducted today.

my science buddies - one very pretty Japanese geneticist, one very pretty Greek pharmacologist, one gnarly old and suave bio-chemist and forensic pathologist. one very pretty Indian pharmacologist, one suit wearing slick looking particle physicist, one very hippy dreadlocked marine biologist. all very very nice people :-)

I know a scientist at my work, and he is extremely biased and thinks like a rock.. unchangeable, and arrogant. I know they are not all that way, but these days becoming a scientist means getting a badge and a rank, and feeling special. Science used to be philosophical, now it is an extremely biased practice, and there is a religious element to it.

Human scientists cannot even reproduce a blade of grass without an original.

I like the story about the scientist who boasted he could produce life the same as God.

"OK," said God "Prove it!"

"Just give me a minute to get a bucket of mud." said the scientist.

"Hold it!" said God, "That's my mud. You go and find your own mud."

Tall skinny short haired person with glasses who is a perfectionist.

I see scientists as running down the beach naked when really drunk or being laughed at by extremely beautiful girls when trying to make advances, however there is always exception to the rule.

Two grasshoppers were emigrating to the next field via the railway.

The first grasshopper was finding hard going because the line was rusty.

The second said, "Why don't you hop over here to this bright shiny line, it is so much easier?"

The first objected, "What about the express?"

"Ah! no, you do not believe in that childish mythological garbage do you.? Generation upon generation of our kind have passed this way an nobody ever saw an express. If there was such a thing as an express surely somebody would have come back to tell us.

(Isaiah 40:21-23) 21 Do YOU people not know? Do YOU not hear? Has it not been told to YOU from the outset? Have YOU not applied understanding from the foundations of the earth? 22 There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth, the dwellers in which are as grasshoppers, the One who is stretching out the heavens just as a fine gauze, who spreads them out like a tent in which to dwell, 23 the One who is reducing high officials to nothing, who has made the very judges of the earth as a mere unreality.

My sister is a geologist. She is who I think of as a scientist.